Mrs Lopa Patel, founder of the Asian lifestyle portal Redhotcurry.com, has become the first Indian woman to be elected as a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) - the world’s largest professional body of marketing, with 50,000 members worldwide.

CIM has 1905 fellows with women making up about 10% of this group. Fellowship of the Institute is conferred upon members with a proven track record of expertise in marketing at the most senior level. Lopa, who has been a CIM member since 1990, attained the Institute’s Diploma in Marketing in 1991, became a Chartered Member in 1998 and has worked in marketing throughout her career.

Ms Patel, who is of Gujarati descent, said: “Like most young Asians at the time, I chose to study a science degree to please my parents. Although my first job was with ICI, a company that manufactured chemicals, I sought a role in marketing from the outset.” She then left ICI to start her own venture, a business-to-business direct marketing services company.